View full sizePortland's White Bird has made a habit of celebrating anniversaries with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. They mark the centenary of Stravinsky's classic "The Rite of Spring" with "Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal)," featuring Michael Trusnovec and Laura Halzack.Paul B. Goode

Walter Jaffe says that as a younger man, his favored art forms were film and theater. But as culture maven living in New York in the 1980s, he and his partner, Paul King, took in whatever they could. A love of dance blossomed when they became subscribers to New York City Ballet, he recalls, "and the next company we fell in love with was Paul Taylor's."

As it's turned out, the loving relationship Jaffe and King share with the Paul Taylor Dance Company has been a lasting and fruitful one. First, Jaffe served on the Taylor company board. After he and King moved to Portland, they took the suggestion of company general manager John Tomlinson and brought the troupe to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in October 1997, in the process giving birth to their dance presenting company, White Bird.

The most recent visit by Taylor's company served as the opener of White Bird's 10th anniversary, much as the troupe's three-night Newmark Theatre stand that starts Thursday will be a highlight of its 15th season.

Historical connections -- not just to White Bird, but also to the pantheon of modern dance and culture -- are a big part of the Taylor legacy. He danced for such pioneers as Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham and George Balanchine, collaborated with the likes of artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, mentored Twyla Tharp and others. At 82, he remains a prolific artist, having added three new pieces to his company's repertoire in the past year.

It wasn't hard, then, for White Bird to fulfill its desire to present an evening of works not yet seen in Portland, despite the Taylor company's numerous shows here over the years.

First of all, Jaffe and King wanted to feature a recent work, "The Uncommitted," from 2011, which The New York Times' Gia Kourlas called "a haunting work with so many moments of beauty -- structurally alone, it's like being on a visual treasure hunt." Then it turned out that the troupe would be here on April 5, the 25th anniversary of the debut of Taylor's "Brandenburgs," a joyous blast of pure movement set to Bach.

King says they struggled with what should complete the program, what could "fit the arc of the evening." But really, what else could they do but mark another anniversary?

The centenary of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" has been celebrated in many ways of late, but surely Taylor's 1980 interpretation, "Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal)," is a fitting one.

The piece, which the Washington Post has called a "deliciously berserk dance version," features the classic composition arranged for two pianos, to be played here by Fear No Music's Jeffrey Payne and Third Angle's Susan Smith.

The long connections between artist and presenter also mean that Taylor, who no longer regularly travels with his troupe, will attend the April 6 performance here, as well as the following night's "Feathered Follies" anniversary banquet, which introduces the first annual White Bird Dance Awards.

No doubt the lifetime achievement award being given to Taylor will be presented with love.